Ah. Of course.
‘Anyway,’ said Tiff meaningfully. ‘History has a habit of rhyming.’
‘Josephine didn’t listen to her heart,’ I said, looking down sadly at my ring with its row of dark moonstones.
‘She didn’t. Which is why it’s so important that you do.’ Tiff sighed. ‘And that I do as well.’
I cocked my head. ‘What do you mean? This isn’t about you and Damien, is it? Or Leon? I’ve seen the way you look at him.’
Tiff shrugged. ‘It is, but it isn’t. You’re not the only one who has a decision to make, Molly. I think the one I need to face is what it’s going to take to findmyhappiness. Because three a.m. Zoom calls and care packages just aren’t it.’
‘You’re breaking up with Damien? But you can’t do that. I’ll fight for Damien’s honour. I don’t actually know what fighting for someone’s honour involves, but I’ll do it. I really will.’
She laughed. ‘You won’t need to do anything like that. It’s just … Molly, I’m moving overseas. For good. Damien and I are going to open a B&B in Portugal. I’ve been spending time talking to the owners of the one Lara’s staying at, and with Leon, whose family used to run one, hence the wholeHotels of the Worldbook-signing thing. I think I know how to make it work.’
‘Wait,that’swhy you’ve been spending so much time with Lara? And Leon. I thought you were just enjoying pretending to be single.’
Tiff huffed good-naturedly. ‘Definitely not. As cute as Leon is, what that book signing told me is thatyes, I want to be able to spend time with the person I love face to face. In the same time zone, eating off the same plate, drinking out of the same glass. Well, maybe not the same glass. Backwash.’ She made a face. ‘But that person is Damien. I love being around him, and I don’t want to spend another three years with half the world between us.’
My eyes smarted with tears. I was happy for Tiff – after all, she’d made the decision she’d been wrestling with since she’d arrived – and yet devastated that closing the distance between her and Damien meant that there’d be distance betweenus. Yes, Tiff might spend a good part of the year jet-setting around and racking up frequent-flyer points, but she always made it home for the major holidays. Especially Summerween.
Perhaps this really was going to be our last Summerween. If so, I owed it to everyone – and my heart – to make it a good one.
Chapter 30
LOVE THUNDERS IN
It was Tiff who felt it first: Tiff, our resident barometer.
‘Is there a storm forecast for tonight?’ she asked from her prone position on the rainbow macramé hammock she always loved to read in. Well, when she wasn’t on FaceTime with Damien, who was presently in Japan for a speaking engagement and had been texting Tiff endless pictures of roadside vending machines and the astonishingly high-qualityonigiriavailable at Japanese 7-Elevens. In between listings for potential B&B properties in Portugal, of course.
I glanced at the mid-morning sky, which was bright blue with a sugary dusting of clouds, then checked my phone app just in case my eyes deceived me. It wouldn’t be the first time, after all. I’d been found hiding under a bus shelter far too many times after not being able to decide whether the grey edge of a cloud signalled the need to bring an umbrella.
‘I think we’re okay,’ I said uncertainly, propping myself up on the outdoor daybed I’d made my home during what I was calling my Day of Sloth, Part Two. My schedule was wide open until the evening, which would involve home-made pizza and a movie under the stars, courtesy of the projector that Finn had helped Rosie rig up on the exterior wall, laughing that for all her kitchen and floral magic, she had not a whit of affinity for any sort of technology. I knew it all too well: I’d spent hours of my life helping Rosie reprogram herremotes, to no avail. I suspected this was also why she insisted on clinging on to her vintage car, which still used physical knobs and dials instead of touch screens and voice assistants. Plus, it was cute.
‘You can’t feel that?’ Tiff frowned, waving her hand through the air. ‘It feels electric. I’m surprised my hair isn’t a massive halo around my head. It’s not, right?’
I shook my head. I knew exactly what magical frizz hair looked like, and Tiff was not suffering from it. Besides, Tiff’s hair knew better than to misbehave. It took after Mom’s.
‘Maybe it’s just a burst of magic from somewhere,’ she said idly, opening up her paperback again. ‘The same magic that set off the crows at the sunflower farm, made the ice cream at Soraya’s melt and made Sandy Balls a whole debacle.’
‘Why are you looking at me like that?’ I said sullenly, twisting Josephine’s ring.
All right, so there was a common denominator in all of those. Me.
‘Did you do your lists?’ she asked. There was no accusation in her tone; she was just matter-of-fact. Because that was how Tiff did things.
‘Yes,’ I said with a huff.
‘For the boysandthe job?’
I flashed my notepad at her, showing off the scribbles I’d added. ‘See?’ I said, a tad churlishly. ‘Pages and pages of pros and cons. I even spoke to Mom about it last night.’
‘And?’
I shrugged. Knowing what you had to do still didn’t make it easy to act on it. Or no one would wait until the last day to get started on an assignment or to do their taxes. Ugh, that reminded me,hadI filed my taxes this year?
Tiff blinked slowly, then took in a slow breath, the way she did when she was trying not to say,For Goddess’ sake, Molly, just figure your shit out!
